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Larimer sends Thornton pipeline request back for more work

Commissioners call for alternatives, public outreach

By Pamela Johnson

Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Posted:
08/01/2018 09:13:58 PM MDT

Lynn Nichols, center right, and Dolly Bennett, center left, Fort Collins residents who live in the area where Thornton wants to build a pipeline for water, and others react Wednesday as Larimer County commissioners tell representatives from Thornton that they will table their 1041 permit application, which means they won't consider any action on it until December. (Jenny Sparks / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

Larimer County did not approve a permit allowing Thornton to build a water pipeline along Douglas Road north of Fort Collins — but the county commissioners didn't deny the application either.

All three elected commissioners on Wednesday, the third installment of a public hearing, said the application as presented was not best for Larimer County residents, did not delve deep enough into alternatives for delivering water to the Denver suburb and did not consider public input enough.

But instead of outright denying the application for the stretch of the 75-mile pipeline that runs through Larimer County, the commissioners implored Thornton to work with residents to find an alternative that most residents and the county commissioners can endorse.

Mark Koleber, a representative from Thornton, speaks to Larimer County Commissioners Wednesday about the water pipeline they want to build. Commissioners decided to table their 1041 permit application, which means they won't consider any action on it until December. (Jenny Sparks / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

Commissioner Tom Donnelly admonished Thornton officials for a breakdown in public process because, he said, they did not work closely enough with the residents who live along Douglas Road, the major east-west thoroughfare under which Thornton proposed burying a 4-foot pipeline.

Residents along that road complained about the impact of construction, if the pipeline were approved, as well as the fact that they were not consulted or listened to before Thornton announced that route was the best alternative for everyone involved.

"You know the importance of public process," Donnelly said. "Thornton has badly missed the boat when it comes to that aspect of this application."

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He and the other two commissioners, Steve Johnson and Lew Gaiter, agreed that the application also needed more details on other alternatives instead of the blanket statement from Thornton that nine other options were considered but not feasible.

The commissioners, too, asked for more detail on construction mitigations for a project that will tear up sections of a major county road for more than one year.

"There's got to be a different and less impactful way to do this," said Gaiter, who like the other commissioners advocated that Thornton work through issues with residents. He said applying for a permit before solidifying those details is backwards.

"Go through the public process first and then come back and ask for the permit," said Gaiter.

Thornton bought several farms and their water rights in the 1980s, and then spent more than a decade going through the water court process to solidify the details for those rights. They city is converting those farmlands to dry acreage and will transport the water to the south.

The preferred plan was to pull the water from a storage reservoir west of Fort Collins then pipe it east past Interstate 25 to the Weld-Larimer County line, then continue the pipeline south. A portion of that, 2.6 miles, would be directly under Douglas Road, which caused residents to complain about the impacts to their daily lives of road closures, construction, noise and more.

Several of those residents, plus others who do not live in the directly impacted area, asked Thornton to keep the water in the Poudre River, boosting its flows through Fort Collins, and remove it by Windsor, then pipe the water south from there.

Thornton officials said that the water quality would suffer too much passing through three wastewater treatment areas, the quantity would diminish and the associated costs would be much higher.

Johnson, however, said that option is reasonable and, though it may not be the top choice for Thornton, it may be what is best for Larimer County — the people the commissioners are charged with protecting.

"Thornton has a right to this water, and your citizens have a right to this water, and I don't want to deny you that, but ... my job my job is to protect the citizens of Larimer County," said Gaiter

Rather than deny the permit outright, the commissioners tabled the application for four months to allow for more information on alternatives and for a robust and thorough public outreach process by Thornton officials. They will consider the matter again at another public hearing Dec. 17.

"If there are significant changes, and there better be, we'll take public comment again," Johnson said.

Donnelly advised Thornton to dig deeper into alternatives, impacts and mitigations — the same advice he said he recently offered other officials when crafting 20-year transportation plans.

"This isn't just 20 years," Donnelly said. "This is forever. It should have as much thought, as much consideration, as much planning as anything Thornton will ever do for its citizens ...